SC relief to Rahul, stays defamation summon

New Delhi: Giving respite to Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a summons order issued against him by a Maharashtra court.

The lower court summoned Rahul to appear in the court on May 8 to face criminal defamation charges for allegedly blaming the RSS for the Mahatma Gandhi assassination in a speech last year.

A bench led by Justice Dipak Misra further took up Mr. Gandhi’s plea against the criminalisation of defamation by the penal provisions of sections 499 and 500 of the IPC and tagged it along with identical pleas made separately by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to be heard on July 8.